Chargers needed a fall guy, and found their man

Ted Cottrell was the fall guy. The chump. The easy way out of a messy room. He was like the kid who always gets caught after everyone else runs away and hides.

But, in this case, his dismissal was the right move, because there really was no other move to make. It's much easier to fire a coach than it is to kick out 53 players. If the cork on the bottle leaks, it's still possible to save the wine, especially when it was expected to be an excellent vintage.

So the Chargers threw out the cork and replaced it with a fresh one. Simple. It's the NFL way, and in this case, no doubt the popular one among the fans.

The Chargers on Tuesday fired their defensive coordinator, pink-slipped Cottrell abruptly, after a half-season of dismal play, some of it seemingly half-hearted, by his pupils. He leaves behind what has become one of the worst defenses in The League.

“You put it well,” said General Manager A.J. Smith, an obvious fan of Cottrell from his days in Buffalo, who recommended his hiring in the first place. “Ted is the fall guy. But, we felt there was a problem here. You know how I feel about defense, a dictating, dominant defense, and I didn't quite see that here, for whatever reason.

“Things were not going well defensively, not at all. We had to make a move quickly, because time is not on our side. If this change is good, we'll all be excited.”

I won't say I admired everything Cottrell did. I thought his defense often was too passive, that he played too much zone when he supposedly had cover corners, and I questioned his ability to make adjustments on the fly. And did he get everything he could out of his players – especially during this dismal 3-5 start?

Far too often, his defense played better after halftime, and, this year, especially, it often came too late. He's a good man, Ted Cottrell, but he has to take the blame, because it was his defense.

Still, to say it was all his fault would be idiotic.

His front seven, which hasn't produced a sack in two games, has underachieved. Nose tackle Jamal Williams has had his moments coming off knee surgery, but how many times do you hear the names of ends Igor Olshansky and Luis Castillo called during games?

The loss of outside linebacker Shawne Merriman to injury hurt tremendously, and maybe his absence had something to do with the lack of fire on this defense. But it's also up to the coaches – and coach Norv Turner can't be excused – to do something about that.

There are many players on this defense making more money than people dream about. It's time for them to look within themselves. Make a play. Make a stop. Earn your keep. Dancing only makes you look foolish when you're giving up over 400 yards and 37 points.

Firing your coordinator is easy, but, in this case, Cottrell may not have been the right hire in the first place. He knew the 3-4 defense, but he also had been out of coaching for two years when he came in with Turner in 2007. Two years can be forever in the NFL.

But Cottrell also was being bad-mouthed after last year's club started 1-3. Talk ceased after the Chargers won eight straight and came within a game of reaching the Super Bowl. He's been working with basically the same players.

Turner, according to Smith, had the final say in the hire and the fire, although the GM also noted Cottrell's exit came after a meeting of the Big Four – President Dean Spanos, Smith, capologist Ed McGuire and Turner.

“We told Norv to sleep on it,” Smith said. “He came in today and felt it was in the best interest of the club.”

Smith is not shying away from the blame. These are his players – players he thinks should be much better than they've been – and Cottrell was his guy.

“I take responsibility for everything we do,” Smith said. “I recommended Ted twice years ago (when Marty Schottenheimer was head coach), and I recommended him again to Norv.

“I go into these things with deep thought. The final decision was Norv's, no question. I know full well 100 percent of the ideas I have aren't going to work out. You have to hope the percentage is really high. It's disappointing, but you have to move on.”

Did Smith think Cottrell was a gamble?

“No, I don't,” he said. “It just didn't work out. It happens all the time. It didn't work out at the beginning of the season last year, either, and then we caught on like a house on fire.

“But it's production. It's now. Something's not right and we're going to try and fix it. There are no guarantees.”

Ron Rivera, the Bears' coordinator when Chicago went to the Super Bowl a few years back, has been inside linebackers coach under Cottrell and now will coordinate the defense. But Rivera's always been a 4-3 guy.